Beat him and they will come

posted at 9:45 am on April 24, 2008 by Ed Morrissey

Hillary Clinton got more than just a reason to continue her campaign from her 10-point drubbing of Barack Obama Tuesday in Pennsylvania — she got ten million reasons. In the 24 hours after the primary victory, Hillary collected a record $10 million from on-line donors, giving her renewed credibility — and putting her campaign back in the black:

Hillary Clinton’s campaign says it raised $10 million in Internet donations after her Pennsylvania primary victory on Tuesday night.

If so, that’s a record haul and one desperately needed by Clinton, who is essentially broke after Democratic rival Barack Obama forced her to spend all her resources to capture the must-win state.

In May, the candidates will compete in a succession of contests that will leave little time for replenishing campaign war chests in between.

Several of those contests – Indiana, North Carolina and Kentucky – are also home to pricey media markets. In Indiana, for instance, candidates must advertise in six markets, including ultra-expensive Chicago, to reach the entire state.

What does this show? It demonstrates that a large number of people in the Democratic Party are not satisfied with Barack Obama as their presumptive nominee. A large number won’t be satisfied with Hillary Clinton, either. But at a time when Democrats could arguably act within their own party’s interests and throw in behind the frontrunner, they simply don’t want to do it — and they want to spend their money on extending the primaries.

Much has been made of the massive amounts of money raised by the Democrats in the primaries and what it bodes for John McCain in the general election. However, money isn’t an infinite resource, and a lot of Democrats have given a lot of money to get to a dead heat. Obama and Hillary will keep sucking them dry to contest the next eight primaries. How much will Democrats have left to contribute for the general election? Will they have gone to the well once or twice too often by then?

One has to wonder about the prospects for fundraising in Congressional races, too. At some point, the contributions to the presidential race starts to take away from the DCCC and the DSCC coffers. If not, and Democrats have this much money around for political contributions, doesn’t that negate the economic arguments they’ve been making for their side?